Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward (born February 27, 1930) is an American Academy Award-, Golden Globe-, Emmy and Cannes award-winning actress. Woodward, widow of Paul Newman, is also a television and theatrical producer.

Biography

Early life

Woodward was born in Thomasville, Georgia, daughter of Elinor Gignilliat (née Trimmier) and Wade Woodward, Jr., who at one point was vice president of publisher Charles Scribner's Sons. Her middle name, "Gignilliat", originates from distant Huguenot ancestry. She was influenced to become an actress by her mother's love of movies. Her mother named her after Joan Crawford, using the Southern pronunciation of the name - "Joanne". Attending the premiere of Gone with the Wind in Atlanta, nine-year-old Woodward rushed out into the parade of stars and sat on the lap of Laurence Olivier, star Vivien Leigh's husband. She eventually worked with Olivier in 1979, in a television production of Come Back, Little Sheba.

Woodward lived in Thomasville until she was in the second grade. Her family relocated to Marietta, Georgia. They moved once again when she was a junior in high school, after her parents divorced. She graduated from Greenville High School in 1947, in Greenville, South Carolina. Woodward won many beauty contests as a teenager. She appeared in theatrical productions at Greenville High and in Greenville's Little Theatre, playing Laura Wingfield in their staging of The Glass Menagerie directed by Robert Hemphill McLane. She returned to Greenville in 1976 to play Amanda Wingfield in another Little Theatre production of The Glass Menagerie. She had also returned in 1955 for the premiere of her debut movie, Count Three And Pray, at the Paris Theatre on North Main Street. She majored in drama at Louisiana State University, where she was an initiate of Chi Omega sorority, then headed to New York City to perform on the stage.

Career

Early career

Woodward's first film was a post-Civil War western Count Three and Pray, in 1955. She continued to move between Hollywood and Broadway, eventually, understudying in the New York production of Picnic which featured Paul Newman. The two were married in 1958 after their work together in the film The Long, Hot Summer. By that time, Woodward had starred in The Three Faces of Eve, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Films with Paul Newman

She appeared with her late husband, Paul Newman, in ten featured films:

• The Long, Hot Summer (1958)
• Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! (1958)
• From the Terrace (1960)
• Paris Blues (1961)
• A New Kind of Love (1963)
• Winning (1969)
• WUSA (1970)
• The Drowning Pool (1975)
• Harry & Son (1984) - (directed by Newman)
• Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (1990)

Both appeared in the HBO miniseries Empire Falls but had no scenes together.

She starred in five films that Newman directed or produced but did not star in:

• Rachel, Rachel (1968)
• They Might Be Giants (1971)
• The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds - which featured their daughter, Nell Potts (1972)
• The Shadow Box (1980) - (television movie)
• The Glass Menagerie (1987)

Later career

Woodward has continued to act, in such films as Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams and Philadelphia (1993) in which she played the mother to Tom Hanks' character, and in television. She also appeared in the television films Sybil, opposite Sally Field, and Crisis at Central High. She was the narrator for Martin Scorsese's screen version of The Age of Innocence.

She has produced, co-produced and directed a number of TV programs. Woodward is the artistic director of the Westport Country Playhouse.

Personal life

Joanne had been briefly engaged to author Gore Vidal prior to marrying Paul Newman. She shared a house with Vidal in Los Angeles for a short time and remained friends. Woodward married Paul Newman on January 29, 1958. They had three daughters: Elinor Teresa (1959; known on screen as Nell Potts and generally as Nell Newman), Melissa "Lissy" Stewart (1961), and Claire "Clea" Olivia (1965). She lives in Westport, Connecticut, but, along with her late husband, has been extremely private about her personal life. Newman occasionally ventured to California, but Woodward refused to go west for many years. Her husband died of cancer on September 26, 2008, aged 83.

In 1990, she was graduated from Sarah Lawrence College alongside her daughter, Clea.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1955	Count Three and Pray	Lissy
1956	A Kiss Before Dying	Dorothy ('Dorie') Kingship
1957	The Three Faces of Eve	Eve White / Eve Black / Jane	Academy Award for Best Actress; Golden Globe; Nominated - BAFTA Award
	No Down Payment	Leola Boone	Nominated - BAFTA Award
1958	The Long, Hot Summer	Clara Varner
	Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!	Grace Oglethorpe Bannerman
1959	The Sound and the Fury	Quentin Compson/Narrator
	The Fugitive Kind	Carol Cutrere
1960	From the Terrace	Mary St. John/Mrs. Alfred Eaton
1961	Paris Blues	Lillian Corning
1963	The Stripper	Lila Green
	A New Kind of Love	Samantha (Sam) Blake/Mimi	Nominated - Golden Globe
1964	Signpost to Murder	Molly Thomas
1966	A Big Hand for the Little Lady	Mary
	A Fine Madness	Rhoda Shillitoe
1968	Rachel, Rachel	Rachel Cameron	Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress; Golden Globe; Nominated - BAFTA Award
1969	Winning	Elora Capua
1970	WUSA	Geraldine
1971	They Might Be Giants	Dr. Mildred Watson
	All the Way Home	Mary Follet	TV
1972	The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds	Beatrice	Nominated - Golden Globe
1973	Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams	Rita Walden	Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress; Nominated - Golden Globe
1975	The Drowning Pool	Iris Devereaux
1976	Sybil	Dr. Cornelia Wilbur	TV; Nominated - Emmy Award
1977	Come Back, Little Sheba	Lola Delaney	TV
1978	See How She Runs	Betty Quinn	TV; Emmy Award
	The End	Jessica Lawson
	A Christmas to Remember	Mildred McCloud	TV
1979	The Streets of L.A.	Carol Schramm	TV
1980	The Shadow Box	Beverly	TV
1981	Crisis at Central High	Elizabeth Huckaby	TV; Nominated - Emmy Award; Nominated - Golden Globe
1982	Candida	Candida	TV
1984	Harry & Son	Lilly
	Passions	Catherine Kennerly	TV
1985	Do You Remember Love	Barbara Wyatt-Hollis	TV; Emmy Award; Nominated - Golden Globe
1986	Women - for America, for the World		Short documentary
1987	The Glass Menagerie	Amanda Wingfield
1990	Mr. and Mrs. Bridge	India Bridge	Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress; Nominated - Golden Globe
1993	Foreign Affairs	Vinnie Miner	TV
	Blind Spot	Nell Harrington	TV; Nominated - Emmy Award
	The Age of Innocence	Narrator (voice)
	Philadelphia	Sarah Beckett
1994	Breathing Lessons	Maggie Moran	TV; Golden Globe; Nominated - Emmy Award
1996	Even If a Hundred Ogres...	Narrator (voice)
2005	Empire Falls	Francine Whiting	TV; Nominated - Emmy Award; Nominated - Golden Globe

Awards

In 1958, Woodward won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Three Faces of Eve. She was also nominated for Best Actress in 1969 for Rachel, Rachel, in 1974 for Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams, and in 1991 for Mr. and Mrs. Bridge. She was also named Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival in 1974 for her performance in The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds.

Woodward won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie, for See How She Runs (1978) as a divorced teacher who trains for a marathon, and in Do You Remember Love? (1985) as a professor who begins to suffer from Alzheimer's disease. She has been nominated an additional five times for her roles on television.

On February 9, 1960, Joanne Woodward became the first performer to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6801 Hollywood Blvd.

References

External links

• Joanne Woodward's thoughts on Earth Day 2006